Roller grills are often used at today's convenience stores and concession stands. These roller grills are employed to heat food items such as hot dogs and taquitos. The food items rest on heated rollers that rotate and cause the food items to roll while absorbing heat from the roller surfaces. These roller surfaces are typically made of chrome and/or coated with a non-stick material, such as knurreled TEFLON™. An example type of roller grill is available from Star Manufacturing, Inc.
Customers interested in the food items need to receive information about the items, such as prices. However, food items on the roller grill cannot be labeled by conventional means. One way to provide this information is to have a menu mounted to a wall, but space in retail locations is at a premium, and food items often change throughout the day.
One other way of providing information to customers about the food items relates to encasements for the roller grills. The roller grills are typically encased in glass cases, under sneeze guards, or otherwise shielded to prevent contamination of food, and to prevent injuries. Placing information about the food items on the encasements for the roller grills is one way of informing customers. However, the tops of the cases are often employed as counter space or oriented away from the customers. Additionally, placing information on the fronts of the cases blocks customers' views of the food items.
An alternative way of providing information about food items to customers is to provide a display inside the encasements that avoids obscuring view of the food items. In one example, rails are mounted inside the encasements in proximity to the rollers and oriented perpendicular to the rollers, and displays are mounted to the rails. However, these rails and displays prevent food items from being easily removed from the case or moved around on the grill, and the displays block customer views of the food items to some degree. Further, these rails and displays are expensive and are often difficult to clean.
Some attempts at supplying the information have also involved inserting stationary items on and/or between the rollers. These items have obstructed views and hamper removal and rearrangement of food items. Perhaps more importantly, these items often make contact with the rollers causing damage to the surface of the rollers of the grill due to friction when contacting with the rolling surfaces.